


Fantasy wars

by Obius_Markus



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-03-08 12:21:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13458150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Obius_Markus/pseuds/Obius_Markus





	1. Eloid

The world of Eloid was an Earth-like planet orbiting sol like star. Its' neighborhood was nothing but. It was situated in a center of a tetrahedron, the points of which were most unlikely combination of a black hole, neutron star, pulsar and, incredible as it seems, a quark star. Bombarded by such a wealth of strange and exotic particles it evolved in a rather strange way.   
It was a world where magic, as humans understood it, could and did exist, where dragons lurked in their hidden lairs, where strange bird man soared through the sky, orcs and elves and goblins and dwarves and trolls and ogres and other races battled each other in an attempt to conquer the land. It was a land of kingdoms and empires, a world of eternal battle for as long as anyone could remember. Until…  
In a kingdom on the edge of continent king raised taxes, again. He needed them to pay for mercenaries in yet another of many countless wars. The war was not going well, but king was proud and swore he would never surrender. The people did not share his resolve, they grumbled and tensions were high. And then in a village far, far away a rebellion broke out. It all started when two boys were playing catch. They were running through the streets, the lead boy turned a corner and bumped in taxman’s horse. The horse, sensing tensions, was jumpy and reared. Taxman, not one of the sharpest tools in shed, panicked and shot the boy with a crossbow. Boy died on the spot. Villagers, already inflamed by taxes were outraged. They attacked the taxman, killed him and left his body on the road.   
The king went berserk. He personally led his punishment detachment and went to village to, as he put it, “teach riffraff the lesson”. As the king approached the village, the elders contemplated their options. They sent the emissary to plead for mercy, but the king cut him down in cold blood. Kings men advanced on the village and their fate seemed sealed. Then a girl from the village, a small girl no older than 10, appeared in the dusty road. Accounts of what happened differ, some say she never moved at all, others say she moved faster than you could blink, others say she moved ever so slightly, but whatever happened, the kings men fell down dead. She then walked to king, touched him with her hand and the king collapsed in a blubbering mess. The kingdom fell, absorbed in another. Soon after, a wizard came to village found the girl and took her with him.   
Nobody heard from her for a decade. She returned a changed woman. She’s grown, for that was obvious. No longer a small 10 year old child, she was a full grown woman, with beautiful black eyes, small nose, full lips, red fiery hair and body that showed a great deal of care. But most of all, she radiated an aura of power. She rode in the village on a black Pegasus that seemed to drink the light. Entire village gathered and a hush fell on them. She went to elder’s house, the only stone house in the village. There she sat with the elders and talked to them for a while. Then she went before the crowd. Historians can’t agree whether the power of her speech won them over or if she cast a mass spell, but from that day, from that village, she founded her kingdom. A jet black monolith appeared on the following morning with inscription proclaiming this village part of kingdom of Utopia. Queen’s name? Well, people called her Tanique.  
It began with a village, then she went to second where people wholeheartedly embraced her. Then third, where all who witnessed it agree, she threatened with great disaster and made the land tremble on her whim. Chief of the fourth village, a bully that kept entire village almost as slaves, tried to cast her off, but accounts say she flew over the village, found him, executed him on the spot and promised no more blood would be spilt. By the end of the year king’s former kingdom was all under her reign. She was not content with surface, for many races lurked beneath, in the dark underground. Black elves, pale dwarves, underorcs, blind kopatchki and many other races were all conquered. Slowly but surely her kingdom grew encompassing more and more of the continent finally becoming an empire stretching from one side of the continent to the other. And in almost every village and city a black monolith appeared.   
No one knows how she did it or why she did it, but whoever she conquered, gladly followed her even worshipped her. Orcs, ogres, trolls, goblins and ublins and all other previously “uncivilized” races became normal sight as they served as her standing armies, protecting the cities and villages. For not even she could command all manner of monsters lurking around. The humans innovated, dwarves built, elves excelled at art and science. Some say monoliths enabled her to rule the world, but no one knew how. Speculation was rampant, but never proven and those that tried to find out, mysteriously vanished.   
The empire prospered for many decades, great cities were built, universities flourished, magic was harnessed for betterment of people. Even then the expansion did not stop. The continent was not enough and soon aquatic races joined the Eloidian Empire. With them at her side, she crossed the vast oceans and within a century conquered the entire planet.   
The empire was not without dissent and some always tried to undo the empress, but she always seemed to know what everyone was doing. The assassinations never seemed to hit her and in the rare instances when they managed to get close enough to attack her, they did not last long.  
Slowly overpopulation, overexploitation and decadence reared their ugly heads. The Eloidian empire became darker over the years. The empress slowly changed and became malicious and paranoid. Rebellions broke out more frequently and were quashed more brutally creating a spiral of doom. Land, fertile and lush, became barren, mines dried out and shortages became norm.   
Perhaps the empire would have collapsed under its’ own weight, or some kind of reform would happen, if it weren’t for a pure stroke of luck, combined with a dose of sheer stupidity that bordered on genius. An apprentice fell asleep transcribing two scrolls, when he woke up, he realized he wouldn’t finish the task until the deadline and in his hurry transcribed half teleport scroll with half dimension door scroll. When his master attempted to use the faulty magical scroll, resultant explosion killed him, his apprentice, 3 member of his household staff and destroyed his tower and nearly 2 square km around it. The nearby patrol that arrived found destruction, but in place where tower was a shimmering translucent portal appeared. Special investigators soon arrived and step by step unraveled mystery of long rang blind portaling. Over the next decade through experiments process was perfected until it was nearly routine. Over the next few decades portalling combined with increase interest in astronomy lead to exploration age as world after world was explored. Much to Tanique’s disappointment, most of them were barren or toxic, unable to support advanced life.  
Until, during one opening of portal supernova exploded, dumping additional energy into the forming wormhole and instead of merely 20-30 lightyears as expected portal opened nearly 50000 lightyears away.


	2. The Event - Eloid

Vail Mortem was riding his enhanced horse hard toward the center of the explosion, his small regiment of orc henchmen guards – blood riders – escorting him on their wargs. Henchmen in this case implied a somewhat different relationship than hireling. It went beyond master-servant. It implied a trusted servant, someone who offered the best of his abilities and was rewarded for it. Nor was master without obligation, he was expected not only to care for henchmen, but his family as well. It was not unheard of that a henchmen bloodline mixed with their masters, more often than not to the betterment of both.  
He received a report of huge explosion nearly 4 hours ago and he suspected the cause. Industrial – or what passed for industry on Eloid – and research accidents do happen, but explosion this big meant only one thing. Portal activation gone catastrophically wrong. What’s more, since no gate facility was permitted outside sanctioned gate complex, this meant a rouge faction within Eloidian empire.   
He was riding through a prairie and still had over 60km to go if he judged correctly. According to his map, prairie turned to hilly countryside that grew into mountain range called Pishkey mountains.   
The explosion must have been terrifying. What was once verdant prairie, now was a barren field littered with corpses of various animals. Large buffalo-like herbivores were strewn in heaps as if great scythe cut them where they stood. Birds in great variety and numbers were half stripped of their feathers and fell down from the sky, all of them dead.   
Several hours later Vail and his regiment found a dirt road with 4 wheel traces etched into the surface hard packed soil. He stopped the regiment and examined it. It bore subtle marks of magical shaping. It was a dirt road, but one cleverly constructed. Top was first slightly hardened and then a specially constructed carriage passed over it. While carriage itself was rather light it paved the route which was then additionally hardened. Dirt between two wheel traces was also hardened allowing single horse to easily pull carriage over a terrain that rarely turned to mud. However deeper inspection revealed additional layer of enhancements that served unknown purpose. He took a sample of it and they remounted.   
Discovery of road was in itself was not surprising. No one actually managed to map Eloid, but enhancements meant that someone invested significant resources in development of secret gate facility. He tried to gauge where did the road originate from, but distance was far too vast to venture a guess.  
They remounted and followed the road. They passed into the hills where devastation became even worse. Whole top layer of hills was stripped and whole orchards and vineyards were destroyed, trees tossed around, vineyard poles thrown down on the ground. Damage was immense. With each passed kilometer scale of destruction worsened. Some houses were completely torn down, while some appeared to survive almost intact… until one passed around it and saw that only one wall was actually standing. Vails’ initial estimate was that someone tried to open a portal at 35 lightyears away. While distance was slightly greater than maximum recommended it was within theoretical framework of portal activation. Now, upon seeing the effects of explosion, he revised his estimate at twice that distance. Initial power requirements for such an activation were enormous, but achievable if one had the means to secure them.   
They rode on through desolation and destruction, Pishkey mountain previously only a distant landmark was much closer now, it’s sheer cliffs closing in on them. His henchmen were battle hardened veterans, on par with any elite regiment of regular army, but even they were becoming slightly nervous. He could tell that they knew something was not right. Their normal banter and grunts were less frequent and they occasionally held the hilt of their preferred weapon, almost to reassure themselves they were still there. After couple of hours of nervous riding they finally came to the portal facility, or what was left of it.   
On a clearing in the base of the almost vertical mountain cliff were remains of a fortress. Its basic layout was still visible, a large octagon with towers protruding outside of angles. Central compound was a multistoried castle, but how tall it was no one could now guess. It was razed to the ground, no stone left standing. There in the middle of it now stood tetrahedral portal, its’ frame shimmering between two points in space. The sides were colored in rainbow pattern.   
Vail approached it cautiously signaling his troops to scatter around. Although there was never a recorded case of gates discharging after formation, it always paid to be cautious. He pulled out his tridd (thaumathurgic research, investigation and detection device), a handy little gadget that detected how much energy surged within the object. It was a small box around 10cm long and 5cm thick covered with glyphs. Out of one end a thin rod protruded that ended in a small sphere. He pointed it first at himself, the little sphere glowed briefly and several glyphs lighted up on tridd. Satisfied that it was still calibrated he pointed it the gate.  
He was nearly blinded as tridd glowed like a miniature sun. All the glyphs glowed briefly and then abruptly tridd shutdown. Little puffs of smoke emanated from the glyphs. He shook it a couple of times, but to no avail. He was astonished. Tridd was a foolproof device that was supposed to weather anything. For it to burn up it was so rare… in fact Vail couldn’t remember if there ever was a case of tridd burning up. That meant that energy contained within the gate was… humongous. He revised his estimate of distance to at least 10000 lightyears.   
Excited he called his troops: “On me!” They gathered around him, their nervousness somewhat eased now that they reached their destination.   
“Obviously we have portal here, one that’s fully functioning. What we need to do is explore where it goes, what’s on the other side. This is the most dangerous task, I will do it myself.”  
Guarg Heavyhead, leader of the orc detachment, a medium sized orc that nonetheless carried authority like a cloak around himself stopped him immediately.  
“NO!!!!” he grunted “Much danger!!! I go, if I don’t come back you lose just me, we lose you, we lost. Me and Xugor Lightfeet go together, rah!”Xugor looked at his leader with pride and grunted an assent “Rah!!”  
Vail was pleased and in a way touched. He treated his henchmen regiment with great care and it paid off when it mattered most. He was half expecting this turn of events and knew arguing with his Guarg was pointless. Once he set his mind on task, there was little anyone could do to stop him from completing it. It was Vail’s job to know which task to present to him and in which way. Vail was very good at it. After a few seconds, precisely calculated so that orcs could see him yielding to their leader he nodded.   
“Very well, you shall have the honor, you have earned it. Pass through the gate, do a quick check and come back immediately. Knowing what’s on the other side is most honorable thing we need now.”  
“Rah!!!” Guarg grunted his assent.  
“We will camp here.” At that his regiment dispersed to various tasks. Some took their war mounts and built an enclosure so that they don’t wonder, others tended to them, others made camp.  
Guarg and Xugor stood in front of the portal, Vail a step behind them. They turned towards Vail, drew their weapons, a great battle axes, always sharp, without needing to be sharpened.   
“We’ll set up passphrase.” He pulled six sided die from his pocket and showed it to Guarg. “When you come back I’ll ask you what’s the FULL number on six sided die. You’ll answer by summing all the number on a die. What’s your answer?”  
Guarg looked at die for a second and promptly answered “21.”  
“Good, you’ll ask me what’s full number on eight sided die and I’ll answer…”  
“27.” This time Guarg didn’t even have to think.  
“Excellent! If you answer wrong, I’ll know it wasn’t you that came back from the portal and I give you honorable death. If I answer wrong, you’ll know it wasn’t me that you came back to and you give me honorable death.”  
“Rah!! See soon!” Guarg said and with that they entered the portal. It shimmered slightly and in a blink they were gone. Vail signaled his troops and they took up guard positions waiting, After 10 minutes of waiting portal shimmered again.  
“Travel coming here!” Nearest orc grunted  
“Everyone ready?”  
“Rah!” chorus of orcs answered him.  
Out of shimmering portal emerged a figure of Guarg and Xugor. He seemed normal, not least bit changed, but still, Vail and his troops didn’t survive countless battles by being careless. His orcs raised their weapons and shields. They stood there watching each other waiting for the first move. Vail finally shouted:  
“I have a twelve sided die, what’s the full number?”  
Guarg took few seconds to calculate and shouted back: “Seventy eight! I have eight sided die, what’s the full number?”   
Vail shouted “Twenty seven! Welcome back, friend!!!”  
At that something sparkled in the eyes of Guarg, but he said nothing, it was not the orc way.  
“What’s on the other side? Tell us!” Vail was impatient to hear what was on the other side of the portal.  
“We could not see much. Portal surrounded by stone walls, tall stone walls. Much space between portal and stone. We breathe normal, nothing dangerous. But bones of the land are good. We could feel them.”  
“Did you feel lighter, heavier?” Vail was patiently inquiring.  
“Much same, not much different.”  
“Was there anything green?”  
“Not much, but great destruction out there, portal was strong.”  
Vail stood there thinking. According to the Guarg there was a good chance the world on the other side was quite good. Good enough to colonize even. He made his mind up. He scribbled down a note and called out his regiment. He requested immediate erection of obelisk as close as possible to the newly created portal. He made quite a list of requests in fact. All available troops, including elite dwarven, elven, orcish, human, iloni and dragon formations. Colonization specialists, mage-engineers and battlemages. He stressed time is of essence and since this was an unprepared opening regiments should be sent as soon as available. That was indeed a tall order, but he didn’t doubt it will be honored. After all, out of 20 or so opened portals, this was the only one that came close to matching Eloid. Lastly, he informed Overseer council that he will be entering portal with his regiment and secure the foothold. It was a somewhat risky move, but in the absence of higher ranking robed lord no one could dispute him. It was a powerplay, Vail was nowhere near enough senior to command expedition to the foreign world, but this way he was unilaterally placing himself as head of expeditionary forces. He didn’t doubt someone will come and supersede him, but until then he will be master of entire world.   
He called Guarg and explained the situation:  
“We need to inform Overseers that a portal was opened, it goes far, far, far away, but land there is good, we need to take it.”  
Guarg didn’t hesitate:  
“Inkathu and Xago, take a 8 wargs, run fast to nearest obelisk, run fast and don’t stop for anything. When one warg tires, change to next. This is more important than you, me or even Vail. Send the note through obelisk. Understood? “  
Inkathu and Xago nodded and headed towards temporary animal pen. There they each took 8 wargs leaving the regiment essentially stranded. They started slow, picking their path across the rubble, but once cleared of it they accelerated and soon were gone out.   
Vail signaled his remaining troops and they formed up on him and together they entered the portal.


	3. At the portal

At the portal

The quake that opened the portal had unforeseen benefit of creating almost perfect ring of rock 20 meters high and nearly 150 meters wide around emergence point. Inside the ring was riddled with caves and passageways, some certain to lead to the outside.  
If someone was watching the gate he would have seen Guarg Heavyhead and Xugor Lightfeet as first two non-human humanoids as they exited the portal. They could’ve been seen loitering around the portal for several minutes then returning back inside. After that, maybe half an hour later Vail Mortem came through, slightly disoriented, nauseated, his head hurting and spinning. He nearly lost the footing on the uneven ground and would have probably fallen down if next to him a huge brute of an orc hadn’t emerged and caught him just in time to prevent his fall. Orc helped him move out of way, then he looked around, sniffed the air and stood still for a minute. Vail managed to steady himself and asked his orc companion:  
“No headache, no nausea?”  
“No, nothing, I went fine. You good?”  
“Not feeling that well, give me a minute.”  
By that time his personal detachment of orcs arrived and were fanning out. Vail tried to tap the magical energy, but couldn’t. Panic gripped him, this world had no magic! He was almost powerless. He gripped the orc tighter and steeled himself. As long as he had his wits about him, Vail was not powerless. He pulled his scroll case out of his backpack and scribed down the note. He called one of the orcs mulling around and had him head back through the gate. He then surveyed the scene in front of him. At the center of the ring was tetrahedral gate, essentially a three sided pyramid some 20 meters tall with firm edges that glowed white. All of the sides rippled like a calm sea in a slight breeze. Between the ring and the gate was approximately 150 meters of uneven terrain, broken by shallow cracks and laced generously with debris.   
He turned to orc and said:  
“No magic here. Can’t call upon it on this world.” He thought he saw something flash in the orcs eyes, but it was so fast he wasn’t even sure he saw it.  
“No magic, huh? Guess it’s muscle then. Goblins will probably come first.”  
Vail nodded, goblins and ublins were one the more ubiquitous races on Eloid. They were found anywhere where other races were not. Lack of magic won’t harm them, since goblins didn’t have enough brainpower to become mages and wizards. Even their chants to deities were weakly answered. But as disposable troops they could hold this portal. Even so, gathering them will not be easy. He was calculating the time needed for them to arrive. It would take his messengers 3, maybe 4 hours to arrive at obelisk. Even if high command wasn’t convinced, they would still need to send some units to check the portal. If they managed to start the muster within 2 hours of receiving the message, they would still need 10-12 hours of hard march to reach the gate. Vail estimated he had at least sixteen hours until first tribes arrived. He started to plan what needed to be done. 

It wasn’t until nearly a day passed that the first shapes of small goblins materialized. For a full day goblins along with their masters emerged and were immediately tasked with building quarters and cleaning the debris around the ring. On each 10000 goblins one lower level acolyte accompanied them. When supervised, goblins worked hard, but were notoriously difficult to control if they thought they could get away with slacking off. Parallel to clearing the debris raiding parties were pushed in the tunnels around the Ring and they started exploring the underground. Around noon next day a passage was found through the ring and first parties were pushed out of the ring. At the same time Vail received a present in the form of a band of cyclops. He immediately tasked them with creating a usable passage through the ring.   
Several hours later, one of the personal guard of Vail informed him that ring itself had flattened top and could serve as rampart. Vail immediately decided to put command post up on the ring. He picked a platoon sized group of goblins and tasked them with building it. By the time the sun started to set, he had an improvised CP set up.   
Captain of his orc guard Guarg Heavyhead came to him:  
“Boss, you been long up, time to rest!”  
“Yes, I should takes some rest… after I inspect the gate once more, I want to make sure nothing wrong is happening with it.”  
He went down the stairs from the ring, tiredly dragging his legs, shoulders slumped from exhaustion. However, as he neared gate, he unconsciously drew up, his body automatically trying to draw strength from his surrounding as he was taught on Eloid. To his surprise immediately he felt slightly rejuvenated.   
“Magic exists near gate. I can draw slightly on it. I think that magic is seeping through the portal.”  
“That be good for war.”  
“Yes, but I think it’s coming in very slowly. We’ll need to test it every day just to be sure.”  
With that he returned to his makeshift abode and immediately fell asleep.   
They tested magic the next day and found out that it while it took some time for magic to enter this world now it was spreading quite rapidly. It was already present in a rough circle some 10km around the portal. Vail thought he could go by without magic, but still took comfort in the fact that magic could exist here.  
During lunch Vail checked his mental calculations. By his estimation, nearly a hundred thousand of “cannon fodder” has passed through the portal. He consulted his scrolls and sighed, goblins were pushed through the portal as soon as they arrived, but still there were some times when portal was not in use. First orc tribes were nearly two days away, human legions day after. Contingent of mage-engineers was also flying in and they should be arriving within a day. He needed to prepare a forge and workshop for them. He basically requested everything that he could, short of dragonflight.   
He received an unexpected gift, actually two, first, Overseers named him, as the highest ranking robed one, temporary leader of the expedition with proviso that a member of rank befitting such post will soon be appointed. Vail was secretly grinning as he imagined what kind of infighting and machinations would be at play. He really didn’t expect new commander would be chosen within a month. The Overseers also expressed fear that the gate would be assaulted and destroyed, but with over 100 thousand goblins already passed, the danger of beachhead collapsing was slim. While only goblins, 100 thousand of them still took a lot of killing.  
A commotion interrupted his thoughts. A detachment of goblins approached him cautiously. They were babbling in their language too fast and too excited to make any sense of it. He seized the closest goblin, lifted him to the level of his head and looked in his eyes. The goblin squeaked a little and then stilled. Vail caught the details of goblins encounter at the outer part of ring. He was even amused when cyclops threw one of the goblins on the vehicle. He was less amused when human vehicle escaped. He contemplated killing the goblin, but decided against it. They never saw horseless carriage before and indeed it was only recently on Eloid that concept of horseless carriages was unveiled. He mentally soothed the goblin and ordered them to resume their duties. He turned back to the portal and decided to make a quick inspection of Ring. The inside of the ring was riddled with caves and passageways. Goblins were busy expanding it and creating living quarters inside the ring.   
Later in the evening a long range party of goblins returned. Vail interrogated them and examined the wounds that three goblins suffered. He was intrigued by these humanoids and their weapons. While firearms were known on Eloid, they were still a rather primitive affair, able to fire nearly 5 times slower than bow and arrow, were inaccurate and dangerous to the wielder almost as much as they were dangerous to the target. He commended the goblin leader for using caltrops on tracks. That intelligence could come in handy. He even remembered the goblin name, Groikx. He ordered Groikx to return in the morning and bring the mechanical carriage back to ring, he even told him to take as many goblins as needed.  
The next morning (day 3 on Earth) Vail saw earth technology for the first time. He carefully examined the vehicle on the outside, carefully noting the damage cyclops boulders inflicted, he wondered what kind of material was on the wheels of the horseless carriage, he wondered how had builders of the car managed to produce such small mirrors and wondered even more how did they achieve that disgusting smell he found under the hood of the car. He didn’t let anyone else approach him and the vehicle while examination was underway. After examining outer shell of the car he tried to open the door. However they were stuck in the twisted frame. He motioned Guarg and orc pulled the doors open. He started examining the interior of the car when something on the floor drew his attention. He carefully picked up a folded sheets of paper. He marveled at the finess of them. He though it took someone nearly three months to achieve such smoothness of paper. He carefully unfolded them and whistled. Guarg looked over and grunted his assent:  
„Rah, that's a map? Gruumsh_placeholder showers us with blood of our enemies!“  
„Indeed he does, my friend. Come we must study it at once! Horseless carriage can wait. This is much more important!“  
For the next two days Vail studied the map while Goblins arrived in ever greater number. The arrivals pushed out older groups creating a great migration that was barely controlled by Vali’s acolytes. Left to their own devices, goblins would have argued and argued amongst themselves, possibly even fought. This way they were pushed out in great circle outward from gates. It was an invasion coupled with colonization in worst possible way.   
During those few days Vail tested magic each day and found out that it was flowing in at somewhat constant rate. Now it encompassed the entire valley, maybe 20 km in radius. This world seemed to be drinking in the magic as dry sponge. Availability of magic meant that more demanding construction projects could begin and Vail was looking forward to building an entire city around portal. Of course, his mage-engineers were still a day out, but he could wait a bit longer. After all, aside from one dead and three wounded goblins, they hadn’t really encountered any resistance so far.  
In exactly 3 days, on 05.04., orc tribes began transit. From two sides emerged hordes and hordes of orcs and not just raiding parties, but full tribes with wagons loaded with supplies, women and children, an unending sea of green, all without any formation in loosely defined groups, usually clustered around banners wielded by orcs appointed by chieftains. Among first tribes was tribe of Guthug, home tribe of greatest orc warlord Gorgu the great.  
Parallel to them, from the remaining side, emerged several legions of eloidian humans. They closely resembled terran humans, however instead of five fingers, eloidians had six and on top of that, they had double jointed elbows and knees. They emerged in perfect formation, 20 men on the front, marching in lockstep, an unending stream of well disciplined, if somewhat smaller than orcs, soldiers. They were all identically clad in ornate helmet closely resembling one from days of roman legions, but made in darker alloy. Their body was protected by shirt loosely resembling chainmail, on which were grafted thick plates that protected torso and shoulders. Their arms were also protected by bracers of similar alloy, but elbows and hand joints only had thin finely woven fabric over them. Likewise, from the waist all the way to the boots stretched similar chainmail pants with plates covering thighs and calves but leaving knees free to operate. Every legion was tailed by several companies of lightly armored infantry, their metal plates considerably thinner, in some companies completely replaced by some type of hardened skin. Behind the supporting companies, enormous wagons drawn by strange beasts followed. The wagons were 3 meters wide and 6 meters long made out of wood and reinforced by steel plates. Those plates were inscribed by runes that even in the day seemed to glow with bluish hue. On those wagons were crates, dozens of them holding supplies of various kind.  
They marched proud, head standing tall, legion after legion in perfect formation, out of the gate, through the enormous courtyard and out of the Ring through newly created gates into the plains around the ring. There they formed in squares, broke open the crates and built fully functional fort, much like Roman legions did. Full army of legions emerged, 20 in total.   
As last legion finished it traverse Vail summoned army commander, along with legion commanders and orc chieftains on top of the ring. They arrived without much protocol, professionals all, Elodians at least, orcs… well they’ve seen a lot of battle and had at least basic grasp of tactics. Waiting for them on the top of the ring was spacious room with huge table in the center. Ever since they capture the map Vail was busy remodeling it on a bigger scale. It was transcribed as faithfully as he could manage. In the lower left corner was portal with rock formation around it, aka the Ring. Stretching from lower left corner to upper right was mountain range heightmap as best as Vail could discern it. In the middle was town of Zhezqazghan and on the far right edge was town of Karazhal.   
“General, chieftains, welcome to the new world.” Vail welcomed the leaders of his troops. It took him few moments to realize they were his troops. He may be junior to most of them, but, technically, he was their superior. He pointed at the map  
“One of our goblin patrols captured artifacts of local inhabitants. Among their possession was a map. I transcribed it as best as I was able. As soon as our mage engineers arrive each of you will get a portable copy. That being said, we are here.” he nodded towards map and portal lit. From the map, two major settlements are visible. First one is here.” He pointed towards Zhezqazghan.  
“That one is both closer and larger than this one there.“ He pointed towards Karazhal.  
“However, that one has considerably larger mine. I want them both.“  
“How do you propose to do that?“ eloidian army commander Halamar asked.   
He was a tall aristocratic imposing figure with balding head, piercing black eyes, small nose and cold smile.   
“Tomorrow morning a contingent of mage engineers is scheduled for transit. They will craft cammo sheets for legions and tribes. Everything is supposedly premade, it only needs to be assembled here.  
Day after tomorrow 10 legions of your army, commander Halamar, will march towards Zhezqazghan. You chieftain Gorgu need to select 5 fastest tribes that will be both fast and sneaky. They must attack undetected. That means no looting along the way, no pillaging, no burning. Can it be done?”  
Gorgu was silent for few moments then finally spoke:  
“You need disciplined, sneaky and fast force. A tall order, but there are few tribes that could manage it. If they could be properly motivated.”  
“What do you need?”  
“Why, loot, of course and glory.”  
“Very well, you have two hours of looting once this Karazhal falls.”  
“thank you, Vail the robed one.” Gorgu formally acknowledged their deal.


	4. The Event - Earth

“It’s funny how people’s mind can be closed to fantasy ideas, rationalizing endlessly sometimes with generous help of circular logic. It can go so far even to dismiss evidence provided by it’s own eyes deluding itself into hallucinations. Generally that is not such a big of a problem, however when person in charge suffers from that condition, it has potential to turn bad situation into catastrophe.”  
\-- unknown soldier

In the year 2019, on first of April strongest quake ever recorded struck 46°43'03.3"N 65°50'30.6"E a seismically inactive region of Kazakhstan. It was duly recorded by seismographs, noted for its remote location dozens of kilometers from away from nearest large city and promptly forgotten. Even though no damage or lives lost were reported, it should have been noticed. It probably would have been noticed if funding for science in general wasn't cut for 2019 and analyst who usually goes through the data wasn't let off. News agencies announced it, but since no lives were reported as lost, world at large had much more important news to worry about. After all, Kim Kardashian had another baby.  
At the same time neutrino detectors around the globe recorded a tenfold surge. The triangulation of data had indicated quake site approximately at the same time, but due to impossibility of stellar event on Earth surface it was written off as misreading and also stowed away.  
Kazakhstan geological institute redirected the nearest expedition to investigate the site of the quake and determine the extent of changes. Despite being nearest they were still some 200km away. Reasonably well equipped, all contact with them was lost some 10 kilometers from the quake site. After two days of silence, police patrol from nearest city was dispatched.  
Talgat Bolatev was driving Lada through the steppes trying to fight an uneasy feeling. Ever since his captain ordered him to go check for missing scientists he a baaad feeling of something being wrong, yet he couldn’t pinpoint what. The fact that he had to take Rustam Ayatev with him didn't cheer him up either. It wasn't that Rustam was a bad person, it was that he was, like most these days, a political appointee. His father was highly placed in the ministry of internal affairs. That literally guaranteed that he would get employment somewhere, even if he wasn't the right person for the job. Though, getting a job this far out of capital usually meant a bad case of indiscretion, incompetence or stupidity. Possibly all three.  
In Talgat's opinion, he wasn't quite good enough to be a field officer. While he did test out better than Talgat expected, there were better candidates for the job. But Rustam was quite determined to be one and his father had enough political clout to push him through. Talgat even knew what captain was doing. He was, so far subtly, giving Rustam and by extension Talgat as his mentor, rather shitty jobs. Aim was to encourage Rustam to drop out and have someone more qualified brought in. Either that, or Rustam will actually shape up and become an officer. Service pool was giving 50 to 1 odds on that.  
So far they spent most of the day driving, retracing lost scientists. It was a rather strange assignment. At first Talgat thought they their equipment broke down and they got lost, but their files indicated that they undertook multiple expeditions of similar nature, had nearly five years of field work experience and they carried at least two GPS devices and sat phone. Talgat wondered how much that piece of equipment cost and what did they had to do to get it. Even more strange was that even though sat phone was ringing – though no one was answering – they couldn’t pinpoint position. It was moving all over the place, one second it was near their last position, next it was north of it, then it would move in other direction, jumping all over the place. It never was more than 10km from their last camp, so that gave Talgat at least an approximate area. They sent inquiry to government telecom, but so far they didn’t hear anything back yet.  
They were driving through “miles and miles of miles and miles” of steppes slowly approaching the campsite. For the last 10km the tension was slowly building up, when Rustam made observation:  
“Huh… that’s not supposed to be there.” He pointed to a steep cliff coming into view some 15 km away.  
“You’re sure, Rustam? Are you reading the map right?” Talgat wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.  
“I… think so.” He looked back, made comparison between map and few landmarks that were around and then more assertively said: “Yes, I’m sure.”  
Talgat was privately pleased that he actually checked before blindly shouting “I’m right!!!”  
“That mountain should not be there. It’s not on any map that we have.”  
“All right, probably result of the quakes. When we find scientist, they can tell us all about how it happened. Let’s try to find their campsite.”  
It took them nearly 2 hours to find it. It was on a small hill, with tracks from their vehicle leading towards the newly created formation. They parked some 100 meters from the campsite and approached it slowly and carefully. As they came closer, they saw that the tents were torn, their equipment turned over and dumped on the ground. Their supplies were ransacked, but the most valuable equipment was left behind. Strangely there was neither blood nor bodies, but that was not the most puzzling thing.  
“Talgat, what happened here? Where are the scientists?”  
“Patience Rustam, first, tell me what can you see?”  
“It appears that camp was attacked, scientists abducted and… robbed?” Even to Rustam, robbery wasn’t probable. They left all of the electronics on the ground, not even trying to preserve it. What were missing were food and water, spare clothes and sleeping bags.  
“Hmmmm… you know yourself that this wasn’t a robbery. Tell me what you see.”  
“Two tents, torn, campfire extinguished, two small foldable tables with chairs, turned over, one chair broken – not from impact, more like something heavy sat on it, 4 devices, one of them is Geiger counter, other three I don’t recognize. There’s also a tripod for camera, but no camera itself.”  
“Alright, now what you don’t see?”  
“Don’t see… I don’t see any tracks. There are no tracks at all. Someone wiped them! Maybe there was a robbery. They took just the camera, leaving everything else here.”  
“Scientist probably took camera, but it’s a remote possibility that there was indeed a robbery here. Something stinks here. Go get the car, we’ll take pictures of the site and load everything left in the trunk. Let someone else figure it out. We have missing people to find.”  
Rustam nodded and started back towards the car. Talgat went to campfire and checked the remains, they were cold. He stood up and gazed around. From the slightly elevated position he could see a fair distance from where he stood, but apart from the newly formed mountains, there was nothing out of the ordinary that he could see. Yet the feeling of uneasiness was growing stronger. Something was definitely not right here. He heard the whine of the engine and Rustam pulled next to Talgat. They took pictures of the campsite then loaded everything in their car. It fit, but barely.  
They started off after the missing scientists. Their tracks were easy to follow and everything seemed normal. Still, feeling of uneasiness grew and tension could be felt in the air. Talgat slowed down from 50 km/h to barely 20km/h. Rustam, without any prompting, wiggled to the back bench and retrieved two AK-47s from the trunk. Talgat silently agreed. They were maybe 1 km away from the campsite when they heard a shot. Talgat hit the brakes and Rustam barely avoided hitting his head on the dashboard. Rustam started to speak but Talgat quickly raised his hand to silence him. They heard one more shot, then two more shots slightly different.  
“Two pistols, no rifles, probably scientists. Not raiders. Get ready with the gun, whatever they’re shooting at is probably very hungry and dangerous.”  
Rustam gulped and nodded. Talgat shifted the gears and Lada moved forward. They crested the hill and suddenly they jumped in a scene much weirder than they imagined.  
In a plain in front of them sat Lada very similar to the one they were driving. Two scientists were waving their handguns from the window periodically firing. Attacking them were a dozen small creatures, no more than 1,2 meters tall dressed in primitive armor waving spears, crossbows, short swords and small axes. They were quick and nimble with purplish skin, cross shaped pupils and bald head. They had three digits and opposable thumb. Their feet also had 4 toes, but otherwise were similar to humans.  
They would try to attack, but when they got too close, one of the scientists would fire at them driving them back. It was obvious that they were scared of pistols, whether it was from noise or they actually knew what pistols were was a matter of debate. Still, it was only a matter of time before the scientists would run out of bullets.  
“Talgat…” Rustan started saying, but before he could finish Talgat revved the engine and charged towards beleaguered scientists.  
“Rustan, when we get close spray them with covering fire. Try to get one of those… things, but don’t worry if you can’t. Priority is to get those two out of here alive. Remember, short burst, no full auto. Get ready!”  
Talgat increased speed just as the creatures tried their charge. Perhaps they were too focused on their quarry or they weren’t prepared for their speed, but they didn’t react until they were nearly on top of them. Talgat hit the brakes and Lada screeched to a halt perhaps a meter from the other car. Before she was fully stopped, Rustan was already jumping out of the door firing short bursts as Talgat instructed. He managed to hit one creature, his three bullet burst piercing through its’ light armor, stopping it dead in its tracks. He switched to others, but they squelched out of his way and he only managed to wing one more. That one stumbled, but managed to yelp his way out of fearsome human warrior. He turned towards Talgat, but he saw that no help was needed. Talgat was out of his side of car, dual wielding two MP-443 Graches and firing on rapidly retreating creatures. There were several splotches of yellowish liquid on the soil, but no bodies. The creatures scurried away and were out of sight within minutes.  
Two scientists emerged from their vehicle and only then details sunk in Talgat’s mind. The vehicle was a mess. All the tires were blown, there were multiple scratches and dents all over the car, and roof was caved in on side, with several small rocks still lodged in. Scientists were dirty, tired and hyper alert, constantly watching their surroundings. Both had bruising from their seatbelts, probably from the sudden deceleration when they blew their tires.  
“Watch out for caltrops!!!! We think we got through them, but can’t be sure” A smaller one of them yelled. It was then that Talgat saw them, small things, barely 5 cm tall, looking like someone stitched 4 nails together and put them in a shape of tetrahedron. Ruined Lada barely exited the field of them, and Talgat realized they came perhaps half a meter from sharing scientists’ fate.  
“Thank God you came, we thought we were finished. I’m Timour Abzalov and this is my colleague Dastan Narimanev.” Taller one introduced himself and his colleague.  
“Yes, thank you for rescuing us. We probably would be dead if it wasn’t for you.” Dastan look at the dead creature and wasted no time:  
”We have to collect this dead specimen, otherwise nobody will believe us. We must hurry, they’ll be back soon.” Dastan was hyperventilating.  
Talgat scanned them closely, looked at the creature and promptly decided.  
“Rustan, give me your cuffs and watch out for trouble. I’ll get the body bag, and scientists will help me load it in the car. I don’t know if he’s dead or not, but I’m not taking any chances.”  
Rustan complied and within minutes the creature was bound one set of cuffs on the arms, one on the legs, and wrapped. Rustan privately thought the caution was overkill, nobody could survive losing that much… blood or whatever passed in these creatures as such, but still better safe than sorry.  
Once packed there was only one thing left to decide. What to do with the car. In the end they decided to leave it there. They didn’t have enough tires to replace punctured ones and it was rather badly mauled. Whatever happened to it, it will be a legal mess between institute, insurance and rental agency to untangle it. They took pictures of car from various angles, paying close attention to all the damage.  
“We must hurry, they will be back soon!” smaller scientist was itchy with tension.  
As if to punctuate his words, a crossbow bolt flew by Talgat, missing him by half meter. It embedded itself in car doors with a loud twank. Several more followed, but none hit them. Car suffered one more in the rear window, though. Rustam reacted in a manner befitting a war veteran. He scanned the impact point of arrows, estimated their origin, raised his rifle and ripped several burst towards, all in span of maybe two seconds. Talgat quickly ushered them all in the car and they sped away.  
With all of them safely away, the tension slowly eased off and Talgat and Rustam finally had some time to get the scientists story.


	5. The story

The two scientists relaxed in the back seat and finally managed to pull themselves together long enough to tell their story.  
“We were working on a system of caves some 200km west of here. Around 2AM we felt the quake, but since there was no damage to our camp we went back to sleep. Sometime between 6 and 7 we were called, rather frantically I might add, to pack up all our gear and haul ass to investigate the quake site. Somebody thought there might’ve been methane leak or something similar. Since it was the strongest quake ever recorded, we were glad to investigate. “ Timour started their story.  
“It took us couple of hours to pack up our equipment. Then we had to drive more than 250km over rather rough terrain. We arrived some 10km from the epicenter and set up a camp. Thank you for packing our equipment by the way. At the least we don’t have to return to our campsite to retrieve it.”  
“We ate lunch and then drove towards new formation that earthquake created.”  
“What can you tell us about it?” asked Talgat  
“Well, first and foremost, there was some debate about it between us. I thought it was natural shaped, while Dastan here has some different theory which, I must add, has some merit and better explains overall situation.”  
“What do you mean?” Talgat was confused.  
“Let me continue with the story and we’ll try to explain it. We arrived at the base of the ring around 1pm. We were hoping to reach epicenter but the rock formation was blocking us. It was steep with lots of boulders sticking out. We decided to look around for way in. We couldn’t fine one so we climbed it. This is where it gets weird.” Timour was obviously more comfortable with this part of the tale. Dastan was simply nodding from time to time to confirm Timour’s story.  
“We were expecting devastation on immense scale, but what we found is difficult to describe.” Timour slightly hesitated, but Dastan finally spoke.  
“We found portal between worlds. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s only possible explanation. There was this huge structure shaped like three sided pyramid pulsating with rainbow energy pattern on each side. Up, on the top, we found a small entrance that lead to tunnel system through the ring. We were hoping to survey the artifact so we went inside and after several hours of spelunking we found exit towards interior of ring. But, luckily for us, we heard strange voices shouting something, commands probably. We peered and saw dozen and half of this strange creatures milling around with one robbed directing them. They were drawing things on the ground. Then, the sides of the pyramid glowed white and the first creatures appeared. From all three sides out came horde after horde of those little creatures. We call them goblins. They kept coming out and moving towards the ring around the portal, following drawings on the ground. They were directed by those robed figure and his companions. Fortunately we were right between two prongs.”  
“That was when we discovered our GPS and satellite signal in general went haywire. We thought it was malfunction at first, but it’s highly improbable, almost impossible for all our devices to malfunction at the same time.” Timour interjected.   
“Yes, it was then we realized we couldn’t upload our images to server via satellite. We started going up as soon as we realized they were mobbing into the ring. In hindsight we should have raced to the top, but curiosity was stronger. After several hours we finally decided we had enough. We hightailed it to the top, but by then it was night. Even with climbing equipment it would be difficult climb and we had to be as silent as possible to avoid detection. Luckily we’re both expert climber, but still it took us nearly 5 hours to climb down. It took us another hour to find our car. By then it was pitch dark and we decided not to chance the night ride. We covered the windows of the car and tried to stay quiet. Sometime around morning we heard goblin chatter and felt them poking our car. They even tried to push it, but fortunately, they couldn’t budge it. After a while they stopped. We peaked through our covers and saw couple of them obviously standing guard. After six more hours of waiting we heard them chattering excitedly again. We peaked and then we froze. There was an enormous humanoid with only one eye walking towards our car escorted by one of the robbed figure.” Dastan shivered.   
“It was a cyclops. The description fits. We decided to bolt. We turned the car on and it died on us. Typical Hollywood bullshit, we tried once more, and engine started. We put it into gear and made a gentle u turn. The cyclops was still some 20 meters away and he got pissed that we were escaping. First he picked up a boulder and threw it on the car. It caved in the rear right roof. Nearly knocked us over, bastard. Then, and this would have been comical if it wasn’t serious, he picked one of the goblins scurrying around him and threw it on us. That thing squeaked the sound of pure terror as it flew towards the car, glanced, skipped off the roof and fell down in the dirt.” Timour was obviously trying to find something funny in the situation, trying to cope with it all.  
“Cyclop then gathered a handful of dirt and threw it after us shotgun style. It pelted the car, but didn’t do much damage. He missed the tires. We sped away and thought we got away when we got ambushed by those creatures. It was really my fault, we were returning the exact same way we came, and they probably spotted our tracks and just put caltrops all over and around them. It was too late when we realized what happened and we were stuck. Thankfully, due to skilled driving by Timour, we didn’t flip, but for a while there it looked like we won’t be able to make it. You have our gratitude.”  
Talgat and Rustan exchanged looks. They couldn’t decide if those two were the most skilled con artists of the world, dead serious or just plain crazy. They favored crazy, but… there was that creature in the bag, the damage to scientist’s car, the unexplained mountain where no mountain should be. It just didn’t add up.  
They were trying to figure things out when they finally cleared the jamming area. Scientists sat phone beeped and Timour answered it. He spoke for maybe half a minute in hushed voice and when he closed the connection he leaned back and relaxed somewhat.  
“Well, it appears that our institute director will come to see us. He wants to know what happened. I told him he needs to see it in person, that the findings are simply unbelievable. He’s flying in, he should be there by the time we arrive. The greedy bastard probably thinks quake unearthed a gold vein. You should probably ask your boss to come as well. They will think we’re either crazy or lying. Maybe both.”  
With that he leaned back and fell asleep. Dastan soon followed. Talgat thought it over and instructed Rustan:  
“Rustan, call in the base that we’re coming in, report that scientists have been found, they are safe and on the way back. Make it a routine report, case closed.”  
After Rustan made the call, Talgat pulled a small metal business card holder, opened it one handed looked at the number and called it. After a third ring call was answered. Talgat asked:  
“How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”  
Rustan looked puzzled, but considering all the events in the last 24 hours, he just shrugged. He barely recognized his captain’s voice:  
“A woodchuck could chuck no amount of wood, since a woodchuck can’t chuck wood.”  
Talgat looked slightly relieved by the strange counter phrase.   
“Captain, we have a bit of a situation. We may require an isolated section of station, we have a possible bio contamination situation.”  
“Say what?! What the hell happened out there?!” Captain was livid.  
“Difficult to explain, sir, we’ll be arriving in eight hours at the station, but we do need isolation.”  
Captain shrugged, he knew Talgat since he enrolled in police force, was his mentor and friend. If he couldn’t trust his closest subordinates and their judgment, he made some serious mistakes decades ago.   
“All right, we’ll use fire department garage. I’ll make arrangements. Just get here safely.”


	6. The Aftermath

They arrived in middle of the night, while most of the town of Zhezqazghan was sleeping. Captain was anxiously waiting for them, pacing back and forth in the empty and cavernous garage. He was not alone, next to him, sitting in rather uncomfortable folding chair, was director of geological institute. Tall, in rather expensive suit, he seemed eager to hear what his scientists discovered. He was practically oozing the need to take credit for their discovery. The car pulled in the garage and Talgat turned the engine off. Now that he felt safe again, exhaustion hit him and he tiredly saluted the captain.  
“Cut with the saluting crap, Talgat. What happened out there?” captain seemed rather impatient.  
“Well, sir…” Talgat, tried to remain as professional as possible “it appears the situation is… rather improbable, but it all went like this…”  
For the next half an hour Talgat and Rustam went through their story. It was nearly comical to watch captain’s face. It went from bemused, to annoyed then angry and finally settling on mild disappointment mixed with pity.  
“You two didn’t have to make such an elaborate joke. If you wanted some vacation, you only had to ask.”  
“But captain… “ Rustam tried to protest, but Talgat stopped him. He looked captain in the eyes and with steel in his voice declared:  
“Captain, we are not lying, there are arrows, motherfucking arrows sticking out of our car! Who even uses arrows anymore? We have proof. It’s in the back of the car. Rustam, would you do the honors?”  
Rustam nodded and retrieved the body bag from the car. He put it on the floor of the garage and opened it. Captain looked at the body in the bag, back to Talgat and Rustam… and then exploded:  
“What in the world do you two think you are doing?! I don’t know where you found that body or what you did to it, but stop this prank right now, or you’ll both wish I just fired you!!!”  
The tirade went on for several minutes. Meanwhile the director was carefully looking at the corpse, examining it in great detail. Now he stood up, straightened his suit and calmly intervened:  
“Hold on, captain, check you ire. I do not believe your officers are lying.”  
“What?!”  
“Well, let’s look at the facts. First, Talgat is one of your most experience officers. Correct?”  
Captain just nodded.  
“A guess, but a good one. Correct.”  
“He has never participated in prank jokes, didn’t, up to now, display any signs of emotional instability and states the facts as they are, not as you want them?”  
“So far…” captain scoffed.  
“Also there’s Rustam. Perhaps he may not be the best material for police officer, but his father would be ruined if this was indeed some kind of practical joke, especially after last year events. Then there are my two employees. While we do not see eye to eye on many issues, they are professionals. Lying would only get them fired. Do you know how many open positions for geologist are there in Kazakhstan? Less than one. Then, there’s a fact that my employees and your officers, prior to this day, did not know each other. There’s literally zero connection between them. On top of it, this would all be one extremely expensive practical joke. I do not believe neither your men nor my employees made this up.”  
Captain just grimaced.  
“Let’s assume they are not lying. It would imply we are under invasion. However, upon hearing that, first thing anyone would do would be to call you insane and have you locked up in asylum. In any case, this needs further investigation, both from science and security point of view. I suggest we file a report indicating a new source of radioactive material has been discovered. That should pique the interest of all necessary parties.”  
Captain nodded and turned back to Talgat and Rustam.   
“You two get some rest, take tomorrow day off. The day after that all of us are going back there and God help you if you are pulling my leg.”  
“There is just one more issue we need to deal with. Were there any maps in your equipment, and if so, where are they now?”  
Dastan stuttered:  
“Well… there were maps in our equipment, but I’m sure that officers packed them!”  
“We packed everything that was left on the campsite, but I don’t remember any maps. Rustam?”  
“There were no maps.”  
Everybody just slightly paled. If they were indeed under invasion, they just handed enemy keys to kingdom. Scientists started to frantically search their belongings and equipment that was packed in the back of SUV, but search was fruitless. Maps were indeed gone.  
“What was on the maps?” director asked softly.  
“Mostly areas around Zhezqazghan and further east towards Karazhal. It... also had some deposits marked.“  
“This, gentlemen, complicates situation. Dastan, Timour in your defense, there was no way for you to know this would happen. Hell, if someone told me situation like this would happen, I would have laughed in his face and call him mad. However, our efforts just got a note of urgency. Gentlemen…”  
With that director left, his two employees with him. Captain dismissed Talgat and Rustam and went home himself as well.


End file.
